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Monday, April 24, 2017

ISRO’s South Asia Satellite Launch on May 5 Not to Benefit Pakistan

India plans to launch on May 5
the 'South Asia Satellite' that will benefit all the countries in the region,
except Pakistan which is not a part of the project.

"It's going up in the first week of May," Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) ChairmanA S Kiran KumartoldPTI in a telephonic interview.

According toISROsources, the launch
of this communicationsatellite(GSAT-9) is
scheduled for May 5 on board the space agency's rocket GSLV-09 fromSriharikotaspaceport.

Kiran Kumar said the satellite, with a lift-off mass of 2,195
kg, would carry 12 ku-band transponders.

"Pakistan is not included in that. They did not want (to
be part of the project)," he said.

Sources said thesatelliteis designed for a
mission life of more than 12 years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made an announcement about
thissatelliteduring the SAARC
Summit in Kathmandu in 2014 calling it a "gift to India's neighbours."

"It (name) was changed to this (South Asia Satellite)
because of that only (Pakistan not being part of it)," Kiran Kumar said.

Earlier, it was named as 'SAARCSatellite.'

"Basically, it (the satellite) is meant for providing
communication and disaster support, connectivity among States (countries of
South Asia region). It will provide a significant capability to each of these
participating States in terms of DTH, certain VSAT capacity plus linking among
the states for both disaster information transfer and also in terms of library
type of things," he said.

"So, there is a significant amount of inter-linking
possible among the States (these countries)," Kiran Kumar said.

According toISROofficials, there is
a potential for each participating country to use a dedicated transponder with
a capacity of 36 to 54 Mhz for its own internal use.

Each country would be responsible for content generation and
its use, they said.